becoming men of courage and strength

I had the great opportunity to be a small group leader at a camp this past week with Cornerstone Ministries from Export, PA. This picture is of our small group. Probably the best thing that happened in our group is that we experienced the Bible coming to life in a new way - by reading it with movie soundtrack music in the background. The 1st and 2nd chapters of Nahum sound amazing with the music of Gladiator (1st track and forward) playing. We read Genesis 22, the story of Abraham obeying God's command to sacrifice Isaac, to the next to the last track on the Braveheart score. It was good stuff! The theme of the week was about students developing spiritual habits and I was trying to help the Bible come alive for these guys. We also talked about the need to have masculine expression and understanding of our faith. So often, when we talk about our relationship with God, it's usually in words that girls understand and so guys feel at a loss. We talked about Jesus, the strong and courageous man of God using the book of Mark to help us see Jesus in a fresh light.

I had so much fun with these guys. They are hilarious. They come up with the funniest things. At the end of the week they gave me this picture framed with stuff they had written to me on the matting. That was awesome! (with a little helpful from my beautiful wife). Anyway, I'm thanking God for a great week!

a sad and yet great week of youth ministry!

This past week started with a sad note - Judy and I attended the going away party of our dear friend Nick Poole who was the youth pastor at Calvary Assembly in Irwin. Pete Malik and I knew Nick when he was a Bible club leader in his high school. It was awesome when Nick came back here to do youth ministry after graduating from college and he has been a HUGE help to our youth networks since he has been back here. Nick's event coordinating skills and graphic design skills (and numchuck skills) have been a blessing! Thanks Nick for all you did for us here. We're going to miss you.

Then from Sunday night through Thursday night I had the privilege of working with my good friend, Lu, youth pastor at Murrysville Alliance at the C&MA senior high camp at Mahaffey, PA. I spoke on John Eldredge's book, "Epic" - talking about the story that God is telling and how we can find our part in God's story. That was so much fun and it was a great blessing to be out in the woods away from the computer, from meetings, from busyness and the normal hectic things of life. Judy came up for a couple days too and she got recruited into helping lead worship with the kids (btw, she did an incredible job at leading the youth worship band in leading the worship at Cornerstone this past Sunday - June 10th).

Today (Friday) was our end of the school year celebration event, Summer Slam, organized by another great friend, Dave Grimm, at Harvest Assembly church in Derry. We had over 200 students from at least 10 different churcehs that came out for the waterslide, extreme games, concerts with Breaking The Silence and Everlife, a great dinner, the ice cream sundae bar, and much more. It was a lot of fun. You can see more pictures of Summer Slam at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29529&l=518b5&id=514945211

I also got to have breakfast this morning with a new youth pastor in Greensburg, Frank Nemeth (Word of Life). Frank is a great guy. Man, I love this job! Thank you God for the privilege of serving You in this way.

How Teenagers Transformed the Church!

Recently discovered this series of 3 great articles called, "How Teenagers Transformed the Church". I think this will really encourage Youth Leaders out there and to give the rest of us some needed perspective.

First Article -http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t.html
Second Article - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t_1.html
Third Article - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t_2.html

I'd love to hear what you think of these. Thanks!

welcoming new youth pastors

This past Friday (May 11th) we had a "welcome lunch" in Westmoreland County for new youth pastors in the area - pictured right. It was a great time. When you ask youth pastors to share their funny stories, you are in for a big laugh! We gained at least six new youth leaders in WC this past school year - in addition to the eight new guys that came last year! We talked briefly about plans for a series of youth network events for next school year and it is shaping up to be very exciting. In Fayette County, strangely enough, our network there is made up of a group of folks who are not youth leaders, but really want to work together to reach teenagers for Christ and we're preparing for a concert outreach at the county fair this summer. It's amazing how all of that came together - Pete and I didn't do anything - people came to us and now we have this really exciting outreach coming up. It's wild to see how God works.

what happens when churches combine their resources?

This past April, we had The Seven Project come to Westmoreland County. 400 students came out for an amazing experience - huge inflatable games, free pizza, professional skate boarder Zach Wenrich, former Harlem Globe trotter Seth Franco, great prizes, and an opportunity to hear about Jesus. This event was preceded by three school assemblies. A couple people have asked me how this was possible - it happened because several churches combined their resources! When churches work together, amazing things can happen. The picture here is of the crowd at Jeannette High School. 114 people responded to the invitation to give their lives to Jesus Christ. But it couldn't have happened without a group of churches working together.

Youth Leaders Working Together Works!

A group of youth leaders in the Alle-Kiski area (New Kensington, Lower Burrell) brought a great band to do an outreach called "Broken Yoke". Broken Yoke played at Cornerstone Ministries for the Ignition school kick off last September. Anyway, it was an awesome concert and another testimony to the fact that God's people can accomplish great things when they work together!

Last night, we had the kick off for The Seven Project, a special outreach that youth pastors in Greensburg, Irwin, and Jeannette are working on together. Zach Wenrich, a professional skateboarder was at the kick off last night doing some incredible jumps with a couple friends of his. Over 100 students from 10 churches came out to the event to get ready for the Seven Project outreach taking place on April 13th, 2007. At the end of the night, a bunch of kids gave their lives to Christ and many more committed themselves to being part of this outreach. It was incredible. I want to say thanks to Nick Poole, Bo Pratt, and Jason Lamer for making this happen!

Reading a great book now about the Gospel of Mark. This is a great look at the life of Jesus with a fresh pair of eyes! Mark portrays Jesus as a man of action who causes a ruckus everywhere He goes. I like that. I want to be more like that. Not obnoxious or cruel (Greg House, M.D. anybody?), but more truthful, bold, and willing to enter the fray. There are times to keep quiet and to hold back. But when the time is right to do that which takes courage and which will be good for other people's lives I want to do that. Being timid and cowardly are not godly virtues. Anyway, if you'd like a fresh look at Jesus, check out this book!

this picture speaks for itself

A picture is worth a thousand words...

for all you fans of the Chronicles of Narnia

According to one of my favorite websites, www.narniaweb.com, filming of the next Chronicles of Narnia movie, "Prince Caspian", begins Monday, February 12, 2007! The movie is scheduled to release May 2008. If you can't get enough information about this movie, check back to narniaweb.com often. I have heard that this Narnia movie is supposed to be a little darker and more intense. Sounds good to me. "For Narnia! And for Aslan!"

i love this job!

Today, Pete Malik and I met with a couple who lead a youth group in the area and two of their students who want to start a Bible Club at their high school. We talked them through the basic steps of launching a campus ministry and being campus missionaries to their schools. I love this stuff! Those kids are inspiring to me. They want to see their friends come to know Christ. It is an honor to do this stuff.

what I'm reading right now

I'm working a number of books at the moment. I'm always reading 5 or more books at once. Anyway, a couple high school guys from church loaned me the new book, "Hood" by Stephen Lawhead. Man, that thing is awesome - I can hardly put it down. It's a great and very imaginative retelling of the Robin Hood story. I can't believe I haven't read this guy's stuff before now.

The story of a man who was born to be a king brings me to the other book I'm working through which is "Way of the Wild Heart" by John Eldredge. I'm actually doing the workbook along with rereading the book. He lays out the masculine journey with powerful, compelling imagery, and really helps you see it modeled in Scripture, especially King David, but also Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and others. And I see it in many of the stories that I love. What he writes about God initiating a man and fathering unfinished men makes so much sense. After reading that, the past 10 years of my life make so much more sense. The trials and difficulties are God initiating me, training me, fathering me. I love this book! I recommend to every guy.

my 33rd birthday

I have a great wife. She knows that I love "Pirates of the Caribbean" and so my birthday was everything Pirates including the dvd, the soundtrack, the Pirates version of the board game Life, a pirates of the caribbean cake, a pirate sword, and more! We had lunch at Long John Silvers and dinner at Red Lobster. It was a killer birthday! Not too much blood was shed. And the loot was great.

equipping student missionaries

Ever since my freshmen year of high school I have believed that God calls students to be missionaries to their high schools. I believe He called me to that and I love challenging and equipping students to be missionaries to their schools now. Pete and I have been visiting a number of clubs lately to share resources to help students serve God in their schools - we had a lot of great stuff leftover from our Campus Missionary Conference last August. Lately we've been to Yough, Belle Vernon, Burrell, Hempfield, and we've got more coming up. This is a picture at the Belle Vernon Campus Ministry which we visited today (Monday, Jan. 29th). Our good friend, and youth pastor Matt Swenglish, is the "coach" at this club and he is doing an incredible job of leading these students. Pete and I also had the privilege of speaking to students at the Free Methodist District Winter Youth Retreat a couple weeks ago about being campus missionaries. I love this stuff!

Strategic Gathering

Youth pastors from our different networks of youth pastors in West- moreland County got together back on January 12th to map out ideas for working together next school year. It was a lot of fun seeing these guys whom I know well get to know each other and talk about issues important to them. These are all top-notch, first rate youth pastors that I am very honored to work with in their communities and in the county. The one big idea that came out of this gathering was the concept of doing a winter retreat together. Pete Malik, my coworker in TFC, and I were pretty excited as we went back to the office after this meeting.

Christmas 2006

Oh yeah...this is Christmas in North Carolina. Instead of sled riding, we go sailing. Judy and I had a great time with her family on Christmas Eve and the days before. We went to the Christmas Eve service that Judy was singing in (amazing time!) and then we had the traditional Christmas eve "game". On Christmas day Judy and I drove down to my folks in NC for a few days. We had a great time with my parents, Justin and Jessica, Davy, and Tre' (my 1 1/2 year old nephew), including the obligatory sail in the sound. The water was a little rough, but it was too nice out not to go. Then we went with my parents to Indiana for my brother Jake's wedding. We ended our 'Christmas vacation' by stopping by Judy's sisters in Ohio and enjoyed an evening with her and Ty (our nephew) at Dave & Busters.

recommended reading

I just finished reading the book "Presence-Centered Youth Ministry" by a guy I know, Mike King. It's a great book and I'd highly recommend it to youth leaders looking for something fresh for their youth ministries. Youth ministry typically consists of fun stuff, big events, worships bands, etc..., but Mike King throws a new wrench into the works - ancient Christian practices. I never thought these things could be part of youth ministry, but then again, I had never heard of a lot of these ideas from believers in ages past.

I also just finished listening to a cd from the Youth Specialties convention by the Dare 2 Share guy, Greg Stier. Man, that was good stuff. He's got a new book out now which his talk on the cd was based on - Ministry Mutiny. I think I'll be getting that one.

i love it when a plan comes together

I had the privilege of speaking at my friend Frank Audia's youth group tonight about students living for Christ at their schools (based on the book of Daniel). It was a lot of fun worshiping with those guys. As a great bonus, another youth pastor friend, Brent Squires, joined me and we tag-teamed the meeting. He gave a great application challenge at the end. I love seeing youth pastors connect with each other! We were really excited about the great worship time those guys had.

We had the Murrysville Youth Network meeting this morning at 9am at Eat N Park in Murrysville (those are so much fun!). They are going to start doing a monthly youth worship night together beginning in January. Then we had the Mon Valley Youth Network meeting at noon at Little Bamboo in Belle Vernon. Tomorrow youth pastors in Penn Trafford and Greensburg are having their monthly network lunches. The Greensburg guys are still talking about bringing "The Seven Project" school assemblies. I'm praying that God will lead that way if it is His will.

article published!

Something cool happened this week - I got an article published in "The Network Magazine" published by NNYM. It's called "From Competing to Completing" and it's about how churches relate to each other. I have to thank Pete Malik, my partner in TFC, and my wife Judy for encouraging me to send this in. Also, my good friend, Mark Kovscek, from Brownsville, contributed a significant idea which became the whole structure for the writing of the article. So thanks Mark! Anyway, it's at www.youthworkers.net. My hope is that this might help the body of Christ become better connected. Other people, who are way more qualified than me, have written much better stuff on this topic, but I hope this helps. I pray that God will be glorified.

Youth Specialties Convention in Cincinnati

Judy and I went out to Cincinnati for the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention the weekend before Thanksgiving. I helped the National Network of Youth Ministries guys (which we - TFC - are a local chapter of) with the registration process (they do the orientation for first-timers and introduce them to the Network). These conventions are amazing. Imagine hanging out with 5000 youth leaders for 4 days!! It is fun and God is there. We ran into a lot of friends including Dave & Kelly Grimm from Harvest Assembly in Derry (Dave is our Latrobe/Derry network coordinator), Tom & Shannon Shrum from Armbrust Wesleyan in Greensburg (Tom is our Greensburg Network coordinator), and Roseann Sworts, Jason Freyer, and Abby Rissler from various presbyterian churches in Westmoreland County (Roseann is our Alle-Kiski area network coordinator). Judy and I are pictured on the left with Dave & Kelly Grimm and the picture on the right is of the main stage where the general sessions took place. If you are a youth leaders who has never been to one of these, you've got to do it sometime.